Types of AP Payment

Direct Payments (eVA exempt)

A direct payment occurs when an item or service is purchased outside the Procurement system (eVA) and an invoice, contract or award letter is presented to Accounts Payable for payment. Please refer to the Procure-To-Pay Matrix for a full listing of eVA exempt purchases.

Types of Allowable direct payments:

Awards and Prizes

Payments to individuals for appreciation, recognition, prizes, and awards are considered taxable income to the recipient. Awards and prizes to non-employees must be for a valid business reason, which may include a contest, door prize, etc. without the purchase of a chance or ticket.

Awards and prizes to non-employees are processed in buyW&M on a Student Payment Request Form or the Direct Payment Request Form. Please include the following information as attachments: (1) Award Letter (2) Description of Program or Competition (3) List of Recipients (4) Announcement (e.g. flyer) of the Competition (if available). This additional information is mandatory.

Cost of placing ads in newspapers and other media forms (such as magazines, journals, billboards, websites, radio, television or similar public media) for faculty and classified position employment, drug studies, clinical research studies, research projects, and procurement advertisements (ads must meet university identity standards). Advertisements (such as in newspapers, magazines, journals, billboards, websites, radio, television or similar public media.) Cost of placing ads in newspapers and other media forms for faculty and classified position employment, drug studies, clinical research studies, research projects, and procurement advertisements (ads must meet university Identity standards.)

Advertisements (such as in newspapers, magazines, journals, billboards, websites, radio, television or similar public media.) Cost of placing ads in newspapers and other media forms for faculty and classified position employment, drug studies, clinical research studies, research projects, and procurement advertisements (ads must meet university Identity standards.) Advertisements (such as in newspapers, magazines, journals, billboards, websites, radio, television or similar public media.) Cost of placing ads in newspapers and other media forms for faculty and classified position employment, drug studies, clinical research studies, research projects, and procurement advertisements (ads must meet university Identity standards.)

Honoraria

An honorarium is a one-time payment granted in recognition of a special service or distinguished achievement for which propriety forbids any fixed business price to be set and is manifested by an activity such as a special lecture, participation in a workshop or panel discussion, or similar activities. The payment of an honorarium may not be made to a person employed by the University.

The payment of an honorarium may not be used in lieu of a consulting agreement or independent contract as a means of paying compensation for professional services. A request for payment of an honorarium must be submitted to Accounts Payable in buyW&M on an Honorarium Payment Request Form. No additional backup documentation is needed.. Honorarium payments must be charged to an honorarium expenditure account (714130).

The University complies with federal and state tax regulations governing any applicable taxability, tax reporting and/or withholding of taxes on any University honorarium payments.

Human Subject Payments

In order to promote participation in a research study and for the university to remain competitive in the research field, it may be necessary for participants to receive incentive payments in the form of cash or gift cards (“value-added card”). When cash or value-added cards are awarded, W&M must comply with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax regulations, federal, state and sponsor guidelines.

Research incentives in the form of value-added cards may be awarded to participants for a face value not to exceed $100.00 per instance. If payments will be made to a particular participant for a face value in excess of $100.00; to ensure proper tax reporting and withholding, the Financial Operations team strongly encourage you to pay by voucher, rather than by cash or gift certificate.

Research participants should be informed that information collected allows W&M to meet government reporting obligations and precautions are in place to keep their information secure. Participants may be given the opportunity to participate without receiving payment if they do not wish to provide identifying information. In order for a research participant to receive compensation one of the following forms should be completed:

Human Subject Payment Log – HSPL (Payment less than $50)
Human Subject Payment Voucher – HSPV1 (payment between $51 to $100)
Human Subject Payment Voucher – HSPV2 (payment greater than $101)

Please see the processes below for cash and gift card payments.

Using electronic tools to conduct Human Subject Research

MTurk Guidance
Use of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) has become increasingly popular for conducting online research involving surveys, as MTurk facilitates access to a large and diverse participant population at a relatively low cost to investigators.

What is MTurk?
MTurk functions as a virtual labor market where registered Workers complete online Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) for pay. During registration, all MTurk Workers are required to electronically sign a Participation Agreement confirming that they are at least 18 years of age. Likewise, individuals must register as MTurk Requesters to post HITs and collect data from consenting Workers.

How can I use MTurk and receive reimbursement?
If MTurk meets the investigator’s research needs, and the decision is made to use this tool, the investigator will need to prepay for the service. Investigators cannot use the university Small Purchase Credit Card (SPCC) to prepay for this service. The investigator can receive an advance from the university to conduct the research and then prepay for the service.

How can I request a non-travel advance?
The investigator can submit an advance request through the Bursar's Office on a Non-Travel Advance Request Form and the full balance must be paid within 60 days. If the research is going to extend beyond 60 days, then the investigator will have to receive multiple advances to ensure compliance with the 60 day advance repayment policy.

How do I clear the non-travel advance?
The investigator can log on to the MTurk website and view the human subject’s submitted work. Additionally, all completed work can be downloaded via the web services offered in Amazon. After the work is approved, and payment is submitted to the human subject participants, the downloaded documentation must be submitted to Accounts Payable through buyW&M on a Reimbursement/Refund Request Form. Refer to the user guide on how to indicate that the reimbursement is to close out a non-travel advance.
Researchers may use other electronic mediums to conduct human subject research. The Accounts Payable process remains the same regardless of the electronic medium used to conduct the research.

Direct Payments by Cash

Payments to research participants by cash will be made by:

Requesting a cash advance. Departments should follow the University’s outlined cash advance process.
Research participants must sign an HSP (log or voucher) at the time they actually receive the cash. The form to use depends on the cash amount.
Departments will document use of their cash advance by processing a Reimbursement/Refund Request Form in buyW&M. The proper back up documentation will be the HSPs (logs or vouchers). The reimbursement request will clear the outstanding non-travel advance. The only portion that is payable against the advance is the sum of all cash distributed. Refer to the user guide in Box on how to indicate that the reimbursement is to close out a non-travel advance.

Direct Payments by Gift Cards

Purchase of Gift Cards for the purpose of payments to research participants will be purchase by the researcher by:

Requesting a cash advance. Departments should follow the University’s outlined cash advance process.
Researcher will purchase the gift cards and maintain original receipts from vendors of all gift cards purchased.
Researcher is responsible for the control and accountability of all gift cards purchased and reimbursement would only be permitted for those gift cards accounted for by the signed participant Human Subject Payment (Log or voucher).
Research participants must sign an HSPL or HSPV (log or voucher) at the time they actually receive their gift card payment. The form to use depends on the amount of the gift card.
Departments will document use of their cash advance by processing a Reimbursement/Refund Request Form in buyW&M. The proper back up documentation will be all gift cards purchase receipts and all HSPL or HSPV (logs or vouchers). The reimbursement request will clear the outstanding non-travel advance. The only portion that is payable against the advance is the sum of all cards distributed. Refer to the user guide in Box on how to indicate that the reimbursement is to close out a non-travel advance.
The AP office will not be able to credit any portion of the advance for gift cards that are not distributed to participants.

Participation Stipends

A stipend is a payment given to an individual or organization as an incentive to participation in a state sponsored program or activity. An award letter or other supporting documentation with a description of the program and the amount to be awarded should be attached to the Vendor Payment Request Form. The expense should be charged to account 714180.

Student Payments

William & Mary makes various payments to students for tuition and fees, teaching, research, other education-related activities and employment.

In awarding and processing such payments, care must be taken to classify these payments correctly for tax purposes and the impact of the Affordable Care Act.

This document addresses types of payments made to both graduate and undergraduate students, including scholarships, fellowships, stipends, prizes and awards, compensation for services and reimbursements.

Student Defined

To be considered a W&M Student you must:

Be Accepted for Admission and Enrolled in an Approved Degree Program
Students must be enrolled in an approved degree-seeking program to be eligible for any financial aid from William & Mary. Students studying in an approved study abroad program are eligible to apply for financial aid from the university.
Enrollment can be full- time or part-time

Guidance on how to process a student payment.

The most important rules to remember when determining how to pay a student are:

Define what type of payment the students are receiving
Verify if the student is enrolled in the semester for which the money is being awarded and
Recipient tax status (US Citizen vs NRA).

Once you have determined the answer to each 3 questions above, you may proceed with the payment request. To determine which office processes the payment please use this document: Student Payment Process FY24.pptx

Tools available to help:

Student Program Payment Repository
(if you do not see your program listed in the portal send an email to Tax@wm.edu to request review/guidance)

Financial Operations Search Tool (residence status, enrollment info)

BuyW&M Student Payment Request Form User Guide

Reimbursements

Faculty, Staff and Students Reimbursements

Personal reimbursement can be issued to faculty, staff, and students who have used their own funds to obtain small items not available through Procurement and Contracts. There are a limited number of circumstances where reimbursement is the appropriate method to conduct the University’s business:

Business meals including catering (Chrome River)
Express services when out of town
Printing if less than $50
Membership dues
Travel (Chrome River)
- Conference Fees
- Lodging
- Meals
- Parking fees and tolls
- Personal Vehicle Mileage
- Public carriers
Continuing Education course tuition
University-owned vehicle & boat licenses/tags/decals
Emergencies only with written justification
An individual requesting an ineligible reimbursement will be given one warning. Subsequent requests will not be reimbursed.
Purchases made for W&M and VIMS by an employee with their personal funds, who is later reimbursed, do not quality for the exemption and will be charges sales tax. The sales tax on purchases made by an employee will not be reimbursed, even if the purchase would have been exempt if paid with direct W&M and VIMS funds. For more details, please refer to the Virginia Sales and Use Tax Exemptions section of the Tax Compliance website: https://www.wm.edu/offices/financialoperations/tax/vasalestaxexemption/

Non-Resident Alien Payments

It is the responsibility of AP and Payroll Offices to ensure the compliance of Federal Regulations applicable to all payments made to Non-Resident Aliens following basic guidelines provided by: (1) Department of Homeland Security, (2) Department of State, (3) Internal Revenue Service stipulates that any money paid to any NRA individual is both taxable and reportable. To find out more about the Non-Resident Aliens process please visit the Payroll Foreign National Website.

Vendor Payments requiring a Purchase Order

Vendor transactions are initiated at the campus department level. The vendor must send the original detailed invoice to the ordering department. The department must immediately stamp the invoice with the received date. With the exception of punchout catalog purchase orders (punchout catalog vendors submit the invoice directly in buyW&M electronically via cXML), the department should submit the invoice in buyW&M against the buyW&M purchase order. In order for the invoice to process for payment there must be a 3-way match between the purchase order, invoice and receipt. Therefore the receiving must also be entered against the purchase order in buyW&M in order for the invoice to process for payment. Refer to the Creating an Invoice and Receipt Against a PO user guide for additional information.